Darin Zandee and his daughter Stephanie enjoy a lazy afternoon paddle and a chance for some fishing on Saturday. -- Photos by Sharon Reichert

The water is about as still and clear as it can be.

The sky is cloudless and blue.

The air is unseasonably warm, hotter than it should be for September.

The only sounds are the wind in the trees, the call of the loons and the splash of our paddles as we make our way across the lake.

Many miles from civilization, in a canoe you travel at the speed of nature.

It was Friday, Sept. 1 when we left Fort McMurray, headed for Lakeland Provincial Park near Lac La Biche.

I was traveling with members of Fort McMurray's Borealis Canoe Club and we planned to spend three days camping and canoeing in Lakeland Provincial Park.

According to club president Darin Zandee, the Borealis Canoe Club was formed earlier this year and currently includes about 45 people from the Fort McMurray area.

People come to this town to work, Zandee said, often alone, and need to find ways to connect with each other - and with nature. Clubs like Borealis provide a way for people to get together and become part of their community.

We stayed at Touchwood Campground Friday night with plans to get an early start the next morning. We planned to load our canoes on carts for the 3.2 km portage and we wanted to beat the rush to the limited number of carts. If you get to the staging area too late, you have to walk all way to the end of the portage to retrieve a cart, walk it back to your canoe or kayak and then walk the trail a third time with your gear.

We arrived at the Jackson Lake staging area at about 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, in plenty of time to secure enough carts for our group of 12 people and six canoes.

Lakeland offers Alberta's only back country canoeing circuit. In a word, back country means primitive. There are campsites and even washroom facilities, such as they are, but those who venture into the back country make a greater effort to leave nature undisturbed, as much as possible. It was a cool feeling, knowing I was one of a relatively small number of people who have set foot on those back country trails.

The biggest difference with back country, of course, is that motorized vehicles aren't allowed past the staging area. We loaded our canoes and all our gear onto carts and headed down the trail.

The portage, which we discovered was mostly uphill, took just under an hour. We were about the end of our endurance when we finally arrived on the dock. One by one, we put our boats into the water and began paddling towards the island where we would set up camp for the rest of the weekend.

The peace of the morning was tangible. We almost felt we could reach out and touch it. We wanted to absorb that peace, let it soak deep into our souls and wash away the stress of everyday life.

As we paddled, someone commented that this was an almost stereotypically-Canadian activity: portaging our canoes into the wilderness, listening to the call of the loon, canoeing past beaver dams and setting up camp on a remote island.

As Darin noted, we get too dependent on government, technology and other people in our society. It's good to get away from it all, he said, and fend for yourself, even for a few days. You really learn what you're made of out there.

Darin Zandee and his daughter Stephanie enjoy a lazy afternoon paddle and a chance for some fishing on Saturday.

It was a nine-kilometre paddle to our island, in the middle of Kinnaird Lake, one of several in Lakeland Provincial Park.

There was plenty of room for all of us to set up our tents but the island was actually quite small; probably not much more than a mile in circumference.

One thing I had been a bit curious about was the bathroom. Actually, I assumed we would have to find our own facilities, claim our own private bush, so to speak, but I was wrong. There was a toilet on the island. A big green throne in the middle of a clearing. With no walls around it.

I took to whistling or singing loudly as a way to announce my presence as I made my way along that path. I really didn't want to surprise anyone.

The rest of Saturday was spent setting up camp, relaxing and exploring our island. There was no real sandy beach but there was a something of a swimming hole so we decided to test the water. It was cold but some of us went swimming anyway.

Brendan Clarke and his daughter Siobhan paddle under a low clearance bridge between Jackson and Kinnaird Lakes.

The guys found a half-log partially submerged in the water and spent the better part of an hour entertaining us with their efforts to stand up on it.

Later that evening, one of the guys pulled out his guitar and we sat around the fire, singing, talking, roasting marshmallows and looking up at the stars.

Sunday morning we headed out on a 20 km paddle down to Blackett Lake and back. The trip included a 1.7 km portage through a mucky marsh.

No carts this time, we had to carry the canoes on our backs.

Or more accurately, our heads and shoulders.

My canoeing buddy Nina and I made it about halfway before one of the guys took pity on us and carried our canoe the rest of the way.

We stopped for lunch at campsite on Blackett Lake and then began to paddle our way back towards Kinnaird Lake.

The "facilities" offered little privacy but they were less smelly than outhouses and prevented us from actualy sitting on the ground.

As the day began to drag on, we noted the big difference between river canoeing and lake canoeing: the current. A 20 km paddle takes a lot of effort without a current doing most of the work for you. Late in the day I discovered that there are a couple of ways to cool down without actually jumping out of the canoe. One is to soak your hat in the water and cool your head.

The other is to - carefully - dip your feet into the lake, one at a time.

It sure was beautiful, though, with the sun beating down, lots of different birds flying around or swimming alongside us. Every once in a while we would stop for a rest and just let our canoe drift while we enjoyed the day. It was Sept. 3 but you couldn't tell it from nature. The trees were still fully green and the temperature was in the high 20s.

By the time we finally made it back to our island, we were more than ready for a swim and some time to relax.

Personally, I was done with canoeing for the day, but some of the others decided that canoe races were in order after supper.

I was impressed with how fast they were able to actually paddle those things when pride was on the line. The fastest team was able to get their time down to about 42 seconds for the figure eight course which probably covered at least half a kilometre.

Monday morning it was time to break camp, pack up our gear and head for home.

As we paddled that last few kilometres back to where we started, there were a lot of mixed feelings. We were tired and ready to go home, but we also knew it was likely our last chance to go canoeing this year so we were a little sad to see that dock come into view.

I am so grateful to the Borealis Canoe Club and in particular Darin Zandee and his family for giving me the opportunity to go along with them, especially on short notice.

The club meets throughout the winter to share photos and stories and plan next year's trips. Anyone interested in joining the Borealis Canoe Club can contact Darin at drzandee@shaw.ca or check out his website - www.naturezwindow.com for more information and to see photos of his trips.